Mountain birch facilitates Scots pine in the northern tree line – does improved soil fertility have a role?
Facilitative plant-plant interactions are common in harsh environments such as Arctic and alpine tree lines. In Fennoscandia, mountain birch dominates tree lines, but mixes with Scots pine in less severe areas. Using over 30-yr. old Scots pine common gardens, established at three locations near the...
Published in: | Plant and Soil |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Other Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Springer
2019
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10138/298187 |
id |
ftunivhelsihelda:oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/298187 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivhelsihelda:oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/298187 2024-01-07T09:41:51+01:00 Mountain birch facilitates Scots pine in the northern tree line – does improved soil fertility have a role? Mikola, Juha Tapio Silfver, Tarja Hannele Rousi, Matti Environmental Sciences Terrestrial Interactions Research Group Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) 2019-01-23T22:40:16Z 9 application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document http://hdl.handle.net/10138/298187 eng eng Springer 10.1007/s11104-017-3517-1 Mikola , J T , Silfver , T H & Rousi , M 2018 , ' Mountain birch facilitates Scots pine in the northern tree line – does improved soil fertility have a role? ' , Plant and Soil , vol. 423 , no. 1-2 , pp. 205-213 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-017-3517-1 ORCID: /0000-0002-4336-2648/work/41400920 ORCID: /0000-0003-0619-5008/work/41401095 85035814080 757ea764-bd47-43fd-8919-ceaf0272cb91 http://hdl.handle.net/10138/298187 000426723800014 openAccess info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Facilitation Fennoscandia Soil fertility Stress Subarctic Tree line CLIMATE-CHANGE POSITIVE INTERACTIONS ECOSYSTEM PROPERTIES PLANT-COMMUNITIES ROCKY-MOUNTAINS ALPINE-TREELINE NORWAY SPRUCE COMPETITION SYLVESTRIS GRADIENTS 4112 Forestry Article acceptedVersion 2019 ftunivhelsihelda 2023-12-14T00:15:23Z Facilitative plant-plant interactions are common in harsh environments such as Arctic and alpine tree lines. In Fennoscandia, mountain birch dominates tree lines, but mixes with Scots pine in less severe areas. Using over 30-yr. old Scots pine common gardens, established at three locations near the present Scots pine tree line, we tested (1) if mountain birch can facilitate Scots pine numbers and (2) if improved soil fertility under mountain birch canopies has a role in facilitation. We counted the number of pines within 1-m and 3-m radii of the tallest mountain birch vs. a random spot in 70-75 planting plots and sampled soil for nutrients at 0.3-, 1- and 3-m distance to the birch in ten plots in each location. Number of Scots pines was 29% higher within a 1-m radius of a mountain birch than of a random spot. This effect did not depend on location, although the locations differed significantly in soil fertility, and no effect was detected within a 3-m radius. Concentrations of water, NH4, NO3 and PO4 decreased significantly with increasing distance to a mountain birch, but only in the least fertile location. Mountain birch can significantly facilitate Scots pine in tree line conditions. However, unlike we expected, improved soil fertility under birch canopies may not have a general role in facilitation. Peer reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Fennoscandia Subarctic HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository Arctic Norway Plant and Soil 423 1-2 205 213 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivhelsihelda |
language |
English |
topic |
Facilitation Fennoscandia Soil fertility Stress Subarctic Tree line CLIMATE-CHANGE POSITIVE INTERACTIONS ECOSYSTEM PROPERTIES PLANT-COMMUNITIES ROCKY-MOUNTAINS ALPINE-TREELINE NORWAY SPRUCE COMPETITION SYLVESTRIS GRADIENTS 4112 Forestry |
spellingShingle |
Facilitation Fennoscandia Soil fertility Stress Subarctic Tree line CLIMATE-CHANGE POSITIVE INTERACTIONS ECOSYSTEM PROPERTIES PLANT-COMMUNITIES ROCKY-MOUNTAINS ALPINE-TREELINE NORWAY SPRUCE COMPETITION SYLVESTRIS GRADIENTS 4112 Forestry Mikola, Juha Tapio Silfver, Tarja Hannele Rousi, Matti Mountain birch facilitates Scots pine in the northern tree line – does improved soil fertility have a role? |
topic_facet |
Facilitation Fennoscandia Soil fertility Stress Subarctic Tree line CLIMATE-CHANGE POSITIVE INTERACTIONS ECOSYSTEM PROPERTIES PLANT-COMMUNITIES ROCKY-MOUNTAINS ALPINE-TREELINE NORWAY SPRUCE COMPETITION SYLVESTRIS GRADIENTS 4112 Forestry |
description |
Facilitative plant-plant interactions are common in harsh environments such as Arctic and alpine tree lines. In Fennoscandia, mountain birch dominates tree lines, but mixes with Scots pine in less severe areas. Using over 30-yr. old Scots pine common gardens, established at three locations near the present Scots pine tree line, we tested (1) if mountain birch can facilitate Scots pine numbers and (2) if improved soil fertility under mountain birch canopies has a role in facilitation. We counted the number of pines within 1-m and 3-m radii of the tallest mountain birch vs. a random spot in 70-75 planting plots and sampled soil for nutrients at 0.3-, 1- and 3-m distance to the birch in ten plots in each location. Number of Scots pines was 29% higher within a 1-m radius of a mountain birch than of a random spot. This effect did not depend on location, although the locations differed significantly in soil fertility, and no effect was detected within a 3-m radius. Concentrations of water, NH4, NO3 and PO4 decreased significantly with increasing distance to a mountain birch, but only in the least fertile location. Mountain birch can significantly facilitate Scots pine in tree line conditions. However, unlike we expected, improved soil fertility under birch canopies may not have a general role in facilitation. Peer reviewed |
author2 |
Environmental Sciences Terrestrial Interactions Research Group Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mikola, Juha Tapio Silfver, Tarja Hannele Rousi, Matti |
author_facet |
Mikola, Juha Tapio Silfver, Tarja Hannele Rousi, Matti |
author_sort |
Mikola, Juha Tapio |
title |
Mountain birch facilitates Scots pine in the northern tree line – does improved soil fertility have a role? |
title_short |
Mountain birch facilitates Scots pine in the northern tree line – does improved soil fertility have a role? |
title_full |
Mountain birch facilitates Scots pine in the northern tree line – does improved soil fertility have a role? |
title_fullStr |
Mountain birch facilitates Scots pine in the northern tree line – does improved soil fertility have a role? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mountain birch facilitates Scots pine in the northern tree line – does improved soil fertility have a role? |
title_sort |
mountain birch facilitates scots pine in the northern tree line – does improved soil fertility have a role? |
publisher |
Springer |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10138/298187 |
geographic |
Arctic Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Norway |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Fennoscandia Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Fennoscandia Subarctic |
op_relation |
10.1007/s11104-017-3517-1 Mikola , J T , Silfver , T H & Rousi , M 2018 , ' Mountain birch facilitates Scots pine in the northern tree line – does improved soil fertility have a role? ' , Plant and Soil , vol. 423 , no. 1-2 , pp. 205-213 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-017-3517-1 ORCID: /0000-0002-4336-2648/work/41400920 ORCID: /0000-0003-0619-5008/work/41401095 85035814080 757ea764-bd47-43fd-8919-ceaf0272cb91 http://hdl.handle.net/10138/298187 000426723800014 |
op_rights |
openAccess info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
container_title |
Plant and Soil |
container_volume |
423 |
container_issue |
1-2 |
container_start_page |
205 |
op_container_end_page |
213 |
_version_ |
1787422650749943808 |